Rainbow City
The Rainbow City was the capital, and most-populous city of the Principality of Har, ruled by the Prince of Har from the Prince's Palace. The city was located in a valley on the Anasic Great-Sea, but which was surrounded by mountains to all its other sides of north, east, and south. This area is sometimes known as Two Lovers' Valley. The location where the River Har became the River Dragon was just east of the city, and gave the city a fairly accessible, if relatively unsafe, underground harbor on the river. Its location allowed it to become the northernmost, and easternmost trading hub of the Goat Road, which was severed during the Storm of Storms. This led the city into a long decline, and moral bankruptcy which allowed for the reinstituting of slavery, and for the takeover of a particularly hardline sect of the Faith of the Mother Sphinx. Although nominal control still lay in the hands of the prince, practical control was held by the Imars, Priest-Princelings with absolute say on matters of faith. Eventually, the slave population of the city was over 100,000, and the discontent so high that a slave revolt was organized by an older slave named Freedmon, often called Freedmon the Finder. Freedmon claimed to be an avatar of the god Enn in the Faith o' Nine, and said that his powers were given to him by Wyrmwood, an enormous dragon made from alternative biological materials, especially plant life: skin of bark, veins of roots, scales of thorns, claws of stalks, wings of leaves, musculature of wood, bones of bamboo, blood of sap, eyes of fireflies, and breath of either leaves, blades of grass, fireflies, dragonflies, ants, red lightning, or green flames. The creature is supposed to act as a phoenix, and sacrifice itself by breathing lightning or fire, and be reborn anew. Freedmon, and his fellow rebels, numbering only about 500, overpowered their masters, and besieged the Prince's Palace. They slew the imars Karsinen, Noma, and Sizur. On the appearance of a rainbow overhead, the prince's pyreguard, said to be powerful fire wyzards, threatened to burn the slaves to death given the sign from the goddess. Freedmon responded by stepping forward, and sprouting two trees from either side of two guards heads, for a total of four trees, which made them appear as hornmen, and killed them both instantly. "There's to your sign." In less than thirty seconds, the guards had transformed into two mighty mangroves, which surrounded, and filled the Prince's Palace, crushing it, killing Prince Eron Oporos, and falling into the Anasic Great-Sea, leaving behind only dead clinging trees. The remaining pyreguard attempted to engage Freedmon, who surrounded his compatriots and himself in thick bark shielding. He made a religious speech, unveiling himself as an avatar of the gods. He stepped forth, and summoned Wyrmwood, who was promptly burned by the guards, only to be reborn breathing dragonflies on them. Freedmon turned their insides into ant nests, and made them crumble. Using the roots already implanted in the Anasic Great-Sea by the two dead pyreguards, he dammed the ocean, leaving behind dry land for his people to cross. He led all the slaves in the city out, and allowed the waters to rush back in, killing over 10,000 people, mostly slavers with waterfront properties, in the ensuing floods. The new Prince of Har was Prince Pyros Oporos, adopted son of Eron, and previous head of the pyreguard. Retaining his position, Pyros set out to hunt down, and burn all the escaped slaves at any cost. Most-notably this includes the cataclysmic Scouring of Harlenn, leaving behind only black, ashen mountains. Pyros hired almost 10,000 tailors, and charged his pyreguard with leading them in the hunt for the slaves. Pyros soon became aware that Freedmon, and his people, the so-called "Sefenlander Slaves" had sought refuge in a newly sprouted redwood grove. Freedmon met Pyros' army, and turned both the remaining pyreguard, and the tailors into a single redwood tree at its center, the so-called Tree of Eternity, "raised at noon." In the Book of Books, the word noon meant "sunset," and is cognate with "nine," as sunset occurs in the ninth hour of the day. It has since come to mean "high noon." Unseen by those sheltered in the forest, Freedmon, and Pyros did battle at the summit of the tree, which ended with Freedmon opening a lychgate made out of branches, and forcing Pyros through it. The black star was taken as a sign to not mess with the slaves, and similarly was taken as a sign by the Parthaginians to take in the Sefenlander Slaves. The Rainbow City would continue to decline until the reign of Emperor of the Sefenlands Messink Messon, who died whilst his son and heir, Emperor Jahartos was in Oporos falling in love with the Prince of Oporos (a then-recent title created for the heir apparent of the Prince of Har), Nusa Oporos. Both young men were stoned to death by homophobic hardliners in a public lynching beneath the ruins of the Prince's Palace. Malko Kalkolt, a general in the Sefenlander Army stopped to watch the public spectacle of a lynching, and quickly intervened upon discovering the identities of the two victims. He himself was killed, but his men slaughtered the townsfolk. Exactly four years later, no longer bound by regents, Emperor Makexes Messon arrives in the Principality of Har in force. Prince Osman Oporos, Nusa's father, is beaten to death with a rock by Makexes. He immediately declares himself the Prince of Har, and then formally dissolves the Principality of Har, partitioning it into the Six Dragon Kingdoms. But not before officially naming the prince's manse "the Meager Manse," and ordering the "Meager Manse" burned. In his full capacity only as Sefenlander Emperor he illegally ordered the creation of the Isthmus of the Dragon Company, which was to set out in enslaving as many Oporosi as possible, and utilize them to build a channel between the mouth of the River Har and the Sayerthenner Sea. Construction took over fifty years. Men, women, and children were born, lived, and died all as slaves, toiling away in underground caverns beneath pitiful trenches. Volcanic activity filled their lungs with ash and sulfur, giving them the Death of Humankind. Mudslides, avalanches, and massive dragonstirs filled in the trenches, undoing months of work, and killing untold numbers of slaves. Loose dragons, especially morningstars, were used to aid in construction, but often rampaged, and led to hundreds of accidental deaths each. Sayerthenner scorpions, giant spiders, and crawling krakens plagued the slaves at every turn, and many more simply died of exhaustion, starvation, and dehydration. An outbreak of blush plague claimed over 200,000 lives. Slaves were forced to build corpsehomes of their own kin's skin and bones. They turned to cannibalism, and mothers began smothering their babies instead of allowing them to live in that hell. Finally, one day, a blachumor bomb was used to blow open the last bit of land. The Anasic Great-Sea came pouring into the trenches, and killed over 10,000,000 people in less than ten minutes. The Rainbow City was buried at sea, and the secrets of the Oporosi Mage's Guild remained hidden deep beneath the waters. Especially its biggest secret, the Undoing of Pyanjen. Something of a pet project for Messink, and his son, both of whom seeked to find out the truth, but had to be coerced into hiding it themselves. Category:Capitals Category:Cities Category:Locations Category:History